post 5 december

So, how’ve you been?

I could easily start this post with apologies, but I’ll just honestly tell you that I’ve been busy! I finished my NaNoWriMo novel, learned a lot more Ukrainian, shared some Thanksgiving joy, and taught my last lesson. Phew!

- So, no more quarantine! After three weeks, each oblast got to decide whether an extension was warranted. Chernihiv decided that three and a half weeks was enough. So, school’s back in, just in time for us to wrap up and leave. After the quarantine, I only got to teach one lesson, but as a bonus, it was at the teacher recertification institute. Susan V and I presented a workshop on teaching listening skills to about twenty teachers, whose experiences ranged from six to over forty years of teaching!

- We had our site placement interviews! Still no more information to share there, but I was asked how I’d feel about teaching Conversational English. The truth is, I’ve been practicing that very subject for a long, long time. :)

- Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Ukraine, but we had the afternoon off! I used it to make the little display you can see in my pictures. On the cabinets in the kitchen, I posted information about the history, traditions, and foods of Thanksgiving, as well as a “hand turkey” thank-you note for each member of my family. I also prepared the most crucial dish of the holiday: mashed potatoes! Be careful, though. I’m glad I checked in advance with our teacher about leaving the skins on the potatoes—mashed potatoes with the skins on is usually food for pigs in Ukraine. Lucky pigs! I also brought home some ice cream cake—not exactly pumpkin pie, but pretty good, too!—and we ate that together on Friday night while they made their own turkey hands, none of which turned into turkeys. :)

Random bits:

- Igor could not finish all of his ice cream cake, but then saw that there were mandarins and ate two of them! :)
- People have all kinds of trust in each other. Several times, I’ve seen a baby carriage parked outside of a store, with no mother or father in sight. Once a dog was watching the stroller, super intently.
- Along those same lines—When there’s not much room, people on trolleys and buses pick up nearby unrelated children and set them on their laps. This happens without conversation. Almost the same: I saw a kid the other day spot his grandmother, who was on the other side of the street. He called out to her, and started to cross toward her. Another random, unrelated woman, walking by on his side of the street, approached and took his hand to help him cross the street toward his grandmother. The grandmother called out to thank the woman, but came across to his side of the street instead.
- Our language proficiency tests are next Wednesday. We have to test at “Intermediate-Mid”… or else, I guess! Hopefully I can guide the conversation smoothly toward the kinds of foods I like and don’t like, because that’s one of the topics I know the most about in Ukrainian.

And here’s the bit I’m really proud of—I was asked to give a speech at the Swearing-In Ceremony in Kiev! Out of 113 PCTrainees, about to become PCVs, I am one of three who will be speaking, and, ta-da!, I’ll be speaking in Ukrainian!! I’m definitely very honored to be chosen for this in the first place, and flattered that my teachers have such confidence in my Ukrainian skills! The three of us—Susan A, Ty, and myself—will give the same speech. I’ll go first, because Ukrainian is the national language. Susan will go next, because English is the PC language, here meaning Peace Corps, that most of us will understand best. Finally, Ty will speak in Russian. Oh man! So, the speech has been submitted, and Ty and I will hopefully be getting back our appropriate translations in the next two days, so we can start practicing! So, on December 17, think happy, good pronunciation thoughts for me! :)

December 17 is a pretty big day in general. That’s the last day of our close-of-PST conference, and after the ceremony, we’re heading off to our sites. Where, exactly? I have no idea!! :)